Orphaned by Choice
by EverlastingCelestial
Summary: Raven is an orphan, abandoned by Arella when she was only seven. Over the years, she gradually closed off her heart so she would not be more hurt from the world around her. What happens when three lively children drop into her life without permission?


_Hello everyone, I am EverlastingCelestial and welcome to this story! I hope you enjoy it, but if you don't that's okay too. _

_**Disclaimer**_: I don't own Teen Titans and I doubt I ever will. But I can certainly love them with all my heart!

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><p>Few people bother to follow the dirt road to its end. But if they did, they would see a huge gray building, perfectly rectangular, and surrounded by a chain link fence and dead grass, with a crooked sign that reads, 'Orphanage of Gifted Children'.<p>

And if anyone bothered to look closer, they might just be able to spot the silhouette of the girl sitting there, half hidden behind the filthy window panes.

The girl's name is Raven Roth. She is about eight years old with odd soulful purple eyes and bluntly cut purple hair. A strange jewel is placed in the middle of her forehead, and she wears a permanently numb face as she stares hungrily out the window. She's waiting for someone. She's waiting for her mother, the beautiful woman in the white robe who dropped her here nearly a year ago. She's absolutely sure her mother will change her mind and come back for her. She _has_ to. Arella is a mother, and mothers are supposed to love their children aren't they? They're supposed to hold them close and keep them safe.

Suddenly, someone shouts Raven's name, and she jumps in surprise. A children's book, Alice in Wonderland, was lying on the pillow beside this odd girl. Suddenly, in a flash of dark energy, the book becomes nothing more than shreds of paper, floating despondently to the wooden floor.

Raven cringes, but what can she do? She's not normal, and she never will be, not even if she tried to be.

But then again, none of the children in this dank, dark building are either.

__Eight years later__

Raven lies under the the scratchy covers, staring into space.

The information she had nicked from her file last night would not leave her. It was hard to believe that her mother had stupidly joined a cult, and had mated with an inter-dimensional demon. Or that Angela Roth had decided to keep the child, only to flip out after seven years and cast the girl away, just like unwanted jewelry, just so she could go join a live in church group called 'Azarath'. Or that a so called church would welcome a flighty woman that abandoned her own daughter with a fresh identity and a new name to boot.

In her sixteen years of miserable life, Raven had spent at least eight of it missing and pining for Arella. She only had one tangible relic of her mother, the jewel in her forehead, placed in there at birth.

Eight years of wasted waiting. After six of those years, she had returned her attention to the world around her, while keeping half an eye on the windows and the winding path outside them.

This orphanage wasn't like the others. It was built specifically for kids that had special powers or were considered freaks. But in all other respects, it was like all the rest of the places in society. The orphanage had its bullies; it had its wimps, and its neutrals. The only thing closest to 'family' here were the 'Units'. That was when the matrons paired toddlers and babies with older children and forced them to share a dorm and ordered the older child to take care of the younger ones. An example of a successful Unit would be the Guatemalan speedster twins, Mas y Menos. The two children were stuck with Karen Beecher, the cybernetic crazy girl who called herself Bumblebee. If you wanted to stay alive, you didn't mess with the twins. Bumblebee would rip you to shreds.

Hardly anybody adopted children from here. Why would they? Who needed a little freak in their family? Most of the abandoned ones made due by banding together.

Raven didn't have a single friend in this place. People were frightened away by that curiously dead look that was always on her face. She always looked as though she had just come home from a funeral of a close friend. Why does she look this way you may ask?

Because Raven Roth did not have anything to live for. From the time she was very small, she had known something was wrong with her. Why else had her mother abandoned her? Why else would everyone shun her as though she carried the plauge? The information about her past had just confirmed that.

Raven pushed aside the warm covers and got up. She went to the little oak closet beside her bed and pulled out a pair of jeans, a dark blue turtleneck, and a strange cloak-like coat. It was always cold here in this forgotten place.

"Raven!"

Her head snapped up. The matron with her hair severe hair in a bun and eyes that promised instant death was glaring at her from the doorway, "Hurry up! There are new arrivals coming!"she snapped. Raven nodded, indicating she understood. The matron sighed loudly and left..

She finished dressing and went out.

_oooOOOooo_

It was all excitement in the 'Initiation Room'. Hardly any, _if _any, newcomers came each year so each time there was a new arrival, there was always cause for excitment. Predictably, the gang that called themselves the 'HIVE' was shoving people out of the way so they could in the front of the room. Jennifer 'Jinx' Linus smirked at Raven as she slammed painfully into Raven's shoulder as she passed her.

The bitch.

Raven also found herself getting shoved to the front of the crowd, being pushed around can get you places you never imagined. She hugged the cloak/coat closer to petite body as she waited, shivering in the cold, stale air.

The severe matron that had yelled at her to hurry up earlier was leading in three children, all of them scrawny and underfed. The oldest was a girl, she had blond pigtails, big blue eyes, and looked about five or six. She clung to the hand of what looked the second oldest of the group, a squirmy child of about three years of age, who had red hair and cynical squinted eyes. The baby also clung to the girl's hand, sucking its thumb and taking in his new surroundings with fearful glances.

Raven felt a sudden rush of envy. Her throat felt too tight to speak as red danced in front of her eyes. There were together, they had each other. And what did she have?

Nothing, that's what.

The matron dragged the three up to the podium and introduced them without much ceremony. "This is Melvin, Timmy, and Teether." The children just stared as she went on to describe the rules and what the facility looked like.

And then came the fateful words.

"Since the children refuse to be separated and Melvin is far too young to be left to her own devices, I will place them in a Unit. Raven, these kids are under your care now."

Raven just stared.

The matron ignored Raven's fiery look of rage and got off the stage, leaving the siblings stranded behind her. Everyone understood this as a dismissal and went off, Jinx not missing the opportunity to poke Raven in the back head as she left the room.

Raven turned to leave with the rest of the crowd.

"Wait!" Melvin's high pitched voice made Raven freeze, her insides squirming with apprehension and disgust. She turned slowly back around.

"You Raven?" her eyes bore into Raven's purple ones. She felt compelled to nod, and so she did.

"Oh." Melvin looked back down at her scuffed pink shoes. Raven could feel her disappointment radiating. _That makes two of us_, she thought with disgust.

"Come on," she finally said, beckoning with one pale hand, "It's almost time for breakfast. Follow me."

Raven turned and walked away, not once checking to see if the children could keep up, or if they were even behind her. She didn't care. She just wished she was still alone.

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><p>Here's the first chapter. It's really just a drabble that popped into my head. Leave me some feedback and tell me what you think please!<p> 


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